Black Sabbath

"In case you're wondering who this funny old bloke is, I'm the one who comes on Radio 1 late at night and plays records made by sulky Belgian art students in basements dying of TB."

John Peel, the greatest disc jockey I ever heard (eternal thanks to Brian, who sent me tapes from England) died unexpectedly one year ago. The BBC is observing its first annual John Peel Day tomorrow. Associated broadcasts and live events are listed in this Metafilter post; we can all listen online.

Here's a page of listeners' Favorite Peel Quotes:

1975, after playing a track from Springsteen's first album: "Well, that was powerfully average."

Mid-80s, after playing some miserable sounding, droning indie-rock track: "Oh well, you can't be mad with glee all the time."

If you'd like to hear his voice -- a treat in itself -- here's an mp3 of one of his broadcasts minus the music. He was interviewing two comedians, but they might agree that Peel was the funniest person there.

John Peel's Wikipedia entry

John Peel Sessions at Amazon